Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just the HN comments?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28822650

7 11 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I have been reading HN for about ten years and I would say I read about 5% of the articles and the rest just the comments about the articles - is this normal?

auslegung• 5 years ago

It depends on the topic of the article. If the article is some topic that’s over my head I’ll skim the comments because inevitably someone has summarized it in a way I can understand. I think that’s about the only example where I consistently read the comments and not the article. So maybe 15% of the time?

oblib2• 5 years ago

I usually skim the article first and then come back to the comments for insight and clarity, especially when the subject is over my head.

I am often amazed by the discussions I read here. The depth of knowledge and understanding of often very complex subjects is really quite impressive here.

So is the arrogance sometimes. But that's common on the internet and I've learned to try and find value if it's there and ignore the hubris. For the most part I see less of that here than is common elsewhere. "Down voting" probably does a lot to discourage that.

oblib2• 5 years ago

I almost always read the articles I comment on here, or a least skim them.

But I don't click on something every time I come here. I skim the front page and the "new" page several times most days but probably only click a link an average of about 5-10 times a day.

I come here when I'm taking a break from coding. I take a lot of short breaks.

The thing I love most about HN is the wide range of topics people share here. I find stuff here that I just wouldn't come across anywhere else.

That and the opportunity to see what others think about and add to those topics offers such a great way to learn that HN is one of the very few sites I do visit every day.

And the main reason I visit it is to find links to click on. Next would be to read the comments. Much further, but next after that would be to comment on the subject and content of the link.

ed_elliott_asc• 5 years ago

The opportunity to see what others think of a topic is what I think I come here for as well

giantg2• 5 years ago

I believe this same question was posted last week. Maybe you can find answers there.

cercatrova• 5 years ago

I only read the comments. I almost never read the article. In fact, of every 100 posts I read, I'd probably read the article once.

snickersnee11• 5 years ago

How many people search before creating another Ask HN, which was discussed already many times?

ai_ia• 5 years ago

I have a thumb rule. If it's anything from nyt, medium or dev.to, I glance at the comments to see if it's worth it. There is usually someone who gives the tl;dr in the first few comments.

The links I am most likely to click are show HN and personal dev blogs..

the__alchemist• 5 years ago

I'll generally at least skim the article. The comments can be a tool to see if the articles are worth reading.

Tangent: Is there a reason why when I submit articles, it truncates to the home page of the site? Ie I'll submit the full URL; it'll show as correct at first. Then within a few minutes, the link will revert to the home page.

softwaredoug• 5 years ago

Well the Web generally is a shit show of ads, bad performance, paywalls, tracking, SEO blog-spam boilerplate, and more...

So TBH I prefer to stay in the comments where I'm more likely to find interesting, more usable content.

indianpianist• 5 years ago

I always only read the comments.

Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just the HN comments?

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